Gen 12-13

Gen 12

1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.  8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.  9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. 17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.

18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Gen 13

1 So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. 3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD.

5 Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. 6 But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. 7 And quarreling arose between Abram's herders and Lot's. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. 8 So Abram said to Lot, “Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left.”

10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 12 Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. 13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.

14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. 15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. 17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” 18 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the LORD.

31: Pretty Woman

Genesis 12-13

We are back in Genesis where we meet Abram. Guess where he is from? UZ!!! Now that we are reading in order, I realized I already know a guy in Uz (Job) and in nearby Buz (Elihu). Uz must have been an interesting place to live and generated some faithful men.  I notice how God keeps reaching out to faithful men. One person can make a difference through faith and obedience.  I wonder if they knew each other.  

Abram is a flawed guy. Some faith. Some obedience. God calls him a friend and blesses him. God can use imperfect people to set perfect plans into motion. I wonder why God chose Abram rather than Job.  So many times in life, God does something in one life but not another.   We may never know the reasons.  

Abram is a spry 75 years old when God tells him to pick up and move from his house in Uz. He is to move his family and animals and live in tents because God wanted to show him someplace. God makes some promises that include a lot of blessing to others and himself. Going from known to unknown and from house to tent. Not knowing the destination. Stepping out in faith.  I wonder what his family thought of this.  I know I would be just peachy if my hubby decided we needed to leave our home on a life-long camping trip to an unknown destination.

Abram has faith and packs off to see what God wants to show him. He gets directions as he goes and builds various altars to thank God for direction. So far so good. But then the unexpected happens and there is a famine.  

Instead of trusting God and going where God leads him, Abram decided to go to Egypt where there is lots of food. So he is off on his own wisdom doing what seemed logical rather than being faithful. While in Egypt, Abram worries that his hot 65-70 year-old wife will draw attention. Go Sarai!  Of course, back then 65 was the new 30.   I still know some hot gals in their 60s and even 70s.  But Sarai must have been something extra.  I am thinking Sofia Vergara here – since young Liz Taylor is already taken for the Moses story.     

Instead of having faith that God would protect him, he tells hot Sarai to lie and say she is just his sister (they were half siblings-icky- and probably looked alike). She is not as ticked as I would have been and agrees.  I guess any gal up for the camp-a-thon is more easy-going than I am.  He must have said it in a really nice way.  And why not just throw a veil over her head or something?   Or make her stay in the tent and say she is an old granny?  Is every woman checked at the gate?  Verse 13 implies Abram was using her beauty to get better treatment for himself.  Wow, God picks some broken people!         

The result is she ends up married to the pharaoh. Awkward.  But Bibleheads think it was more of an engagement and that they were not sleeping together.  Still a bad situation for all involved.  I wonder if God ever rethought the whole Abram thing.  I would have, but God seems to take joy in using broken vessels.  

So Abram has gone off track and God needs to get him moving in the right direction again. God brings disease to poor pharaoh.  It seems unfair that God punishes pharaoh for Abram’s half-truth.  But God uses this to right the wrong and make pharaoh treat Abram well.  Irony here is that Abram tried to use a lie to get good treatment. God used the truth to get good treatment for Abram.  

Abram goes back to the location where he had previously built an altar. Abram is not always faithful and does not always trust God. But when things get hard, he goes back to the place where God led him.  That is a good quality – maybe the one God saw in him.  

Next, Lot gets 1st choice of land and chooses the land he thinks is better.  They don’t seem to ask God about any of this.  But God tells Abram that his land will be in all directions and that Father Abraham would have many sons, many sons would have Father Abraham… ok I will stop.  His children would be numerous like sand.